Many people suffer from back pain. It is often difficult to diagnose the cause of the back pain. In attempting to diagnose the cause of back pain, imaging devices such as ultrasound or x-ray machines can be used to obtain a picture of the structure of a patient's spine. However, the static view of the spine's structure may not be sufficient to evaluate the structural integrity or the functional capacity of the spine. The non-static alternative to evaluating the spine is to use a single point probe which applies a force (i.e. excitation) at a single point location and measures the response at that same location. This method is often inadequate to identify structural and functional defects that may relate to a subject's discomfort.
Although a relation between spinal structure and function is assumed, we have yet to understand how and when structural alterations occur and why these alterations may or may not lead to pathology and morbidity. One explanation for this deficiency of knowledge is a general inability to evaluate spinal structure. While many techniques are available to view spinal anatomy, they may not be sufficient to evaluate structural integrity or functional capacity. Specifically, various imaging techniques may lack the ability or resolution to visualize the structural change of importance. Even if structural alterations are visualized, their presence may not influence structural integrity or performance. Therefore, with few tools available to evaluate spinal structure, understanding its significance to spinal dysfunction, injury and pathology is considerably difficult as is finding a meaningful solution to the significant costs and morbidity associated with these conditions.